Shopalyst gets Rs 13 crore funding from Kalaari Capital

Shopalyst, a 16-month-old startup founded by four veterans from Infosys and currently in beta testing phase, has raised $2 million from Kalaari Capital.Madhav Chanchani | ET Bureau | October 02, 2015, 09:04 IST

Ever read a review for a new bluetooth speaker on your favourite tech website and wanted to buy it right away? This Bengaluru-based startup is looking to bring the "buy now" button on websites and mobile applications.

Shopalyst, a 16-month-old startup founded by four veterans from Infosys and currently in beta testing phase, has raised $2 million (Rs 13 crore) in venture capital funding from Kalaari Capital to help bring e-commerce to online publishers and content creators. The funding from Kalaari, which is an early investor in e-tailers like Snapdeal and Myntra, will help the company expand its team and also reach out to global markets.

"In our digital life, we discover products not only on e-tailing websites but also on news websites and fashion blog. We want to bring you the ability to discover and purchase products across the universe," said Founder and Chief Executive Girish Ramachandra, who was earlier a vice-president at Infosys. Shopalyst's other founders include Sajeesh P J, Mohan Krishnan and Vibin Balakrishnan.

The startup is being mentored by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, and counts former Helion Venture Partners' Kanwaljit Singh and former Infosys global sales head Basab Pradhan as angel investors. By using its app Shortlyst, publishers and developers can easily add buy buttons to images, videos, posts, chats, lists, news and others. Customer don't need to go to the e-tailers website to buy the product, but can buy through the publishers application.

Shopalyst has tied up with over two dozen Indian e-commerce companies such as Flipkart, Amazon, Jabong and Snapdeal with over 10 million stock keeping units (SKU) in its database. It is banking on the increasing marketing spends by e-tailers, who India Infoline (IIFL) estimates will spend $7.5 billion on discounting by 2020.